Routes In Brief: Rolling Daily Updates (W/C Oct. 16, 2023)

Aaron Karp October 20, 2023

Alaska airlines 737 — Credit: Joe Pries Aviation

The latest airline route news, featuring network changes, schedule alterations, codeshares and interline agreements.

Oct. 20

Canada’s Porter Airlines will open service between Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) and Las Vegas Reid International Airport (LAS) from March 5, 2024, marking the carrier’s third Embraer E195-E2 route to the western U.S. The service will be operated daily. Porter plans to launch flights from YYZ to both Los Angeles and San Francisco in January 2024. In November and December, the airline will make its initial E195-E2 foray into the U.S., with flights starting from YYZ to five Florida destinations, as well as two Florida routes launching from Ottawa. Las Vegas will be Porter’s 17th route from YYZ. Four airlines, all Canadian, currently operate the YYZ-LAS route: Air Canada; Canada Jetlines; Flair Airlines; and WestJet.

Alaska Airlines Chief Commercial Officer Andrew Harrison said the airline is seeing a “settling down of capacity across the country” for the U.S. airline industry, citing high fuel costs. Given those costs, “we're looking much harder about where we're putting our airplanes in high-frequency routes, leisure versus business, time of year,” he said on the Seattle-based carrier’s third-quarter earnings call. Between July and September, there were “very significant changes in demand profile,” he said. CEO Ben Minicucci added the airline is “going to take a hard look … at next year's capacity. We're going to look at Q1 really hard, [trimming capacity] on days where we have to [trim] and flying hard where we can fly hard. So, it's a delicate balance.”

Oct. 19

Jet2.com will launch flights from a number of UK airports to the Moroccan destinations of Agadir and Marrakech from October 2024. The leisure carrier and tour operator will fly scheduled services to Marrakech from four UK airports (Birmingham, Glasgow, Manchester and London Stansted) and to Agadir from six UK airports (Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow, Leeds Bradford, Manchester and London Stansted).

Singapore and Mongolia signed a memorandum of understanding to expand the bilateral air services agreement between the two countries. The expanded ASA allows airlines from Singapore and Mongolia to operate unlimited third- and fourth-freedom passenger services between both countries, as well as up to 14 weekly passenger services exercising fifth-freedom traffic rights between Singapore and Mongolia via any intermediate points, and to any beyond points, with no restrictions on aircraft type or capacity. Before the latest expansion, the agreement allowed for three weekly passenger services exercising third-, fourth- and fifth-freedom traffic rights. Despite the agreement, there are no currently scheduled passenger services between the two countries.

Munich Airport (MUC) has signed a letter of intent (LOI) with Dabico Airport Solutions Germany to develop fully automated passenger boarding bridges. “With the LOI, the two companies announce that they will determine the requirements for autonomous operation of the passenger boarding bridges and will use the results to jointly develop a pilot system for Munich Airport,” MUC says in a statement. MUC CEO Jost Lammers adds: "With this pioneering project, we aim to reduce the duration of docking and undocking operations for passenger boarding bridges, thereby increasing the operational reliability and efficiency of our handling processes.” The airport says developing autonomous passenger boarding bridges “is part of a digitalization strategy at Munich Airport that encompasses operational, commercial and, above all, passenger-friendly processes and technologies.”

Oct. 18

Saudi Arabian LCC flynas will open 1X-weekly service between Jeddah and Ankara, Turkey, from Nov. 7. The carrier notes it operates to more than 70 domestic and international destinations on more than 1,500 weekly flights. It aims to serve 165 total destinations by 2030.

U.S. ULCC Spirit Airlines will launch flights between San Antonio International Airport (SAT) in Texas and Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) next year. The service will be flown daily from April 5, 2024. EWR will become the sixth airport to which Spirit operates from SAT. The carrier will go head-to-head with United Airlines on the SAT-EWR route. Spirit began service from SAT in November 2022, opening flights to Orlando, Florida, and Las Vegas. This year, the airline added San Antonio flights to Baltimore-Washington International Airport; Fort Lauderdale, Florida; and Los Angeles.

Aer Lingus has extended service between Dublin Airport (DUL) and Hartford Bradley International Airport (BDS) in Connecticut to “almost year-round,” according to BDS. The Irish carrier is currently operating daily flights on the DUL-BDS route and will continue to do so through Oct. 26. From Oct. 28 to Jan. 5, 2024, the airline will fly the transatlantic route 3X-weekly. The service will not operate from Jan. 6, 2024 to March 12, 2024, but will pick up again from March 13 with 3X-weekly service through March 28. Aer Lingus will fly the route daily from March 30, 2024 through October 2024.

Oct. 17

DHL Express says Singapore Airlines (SIA) will operate a Boeing 777 freighter with a joint DHL-SIA livery on two multiple-point routes, part of the DHL-SIA crew and maintenance agreement signed last year. The 777F will fly 5X-weekly on a Singapore-Nagoya-Los Angeles-Honolulu-Singapore routing. It will fly 1X-weekly on a Singapore-Taipei-Nagoya-Cincinnati-Honolulu-Sydney-Singapore routing. The DHL-SIA deal covers five 777 freighters based in Singapore and operated by SIA on cargo routes between Asia and North America.

The Star Alliance opened its second lounge at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG). The club will be available to first- and business-class passengers on Star-member-airline flights departing from gates 10 to 38 in CDG’s Terminal 1. “The sprawling but intimate space can accommodate over 300 guests across approximately 1,300 m²,” the Star Alliance says in a statement, adding, “With great runway views, the lounge offers ample natural light with a glass façade running across its length, giving a sense of further largeness to the space.” Some 20 Star Alliance carriers operate from CDG, offering a combined 464 weekly departures to 34 destinations in 22 countries.

Southwest Airlines made three appointments in network operations and planning. Brook Sorem has been promoted from managing director for schedule planning to vice president for network planning. He will be in charge of Southwest’s network and capacity planning and airline partnerships. The airline notes that Sorem has spent more than 30 years in network planning positions with Dallas-based Southwest. Steve West, a 40-year Southwest veteran who was serving as the carrier’s managing director of operations control, has been promoted to vice president for network operations control. “He'll focus on day-of operations and support Southwest's safe and efficient flying schedule,” the airline says in a statement. Matt Hafner is retiring from serving as the airline’s vice president for network operations control.

Matt Muehleisen, who has been with Southwest since 2001, will move from his role as managing director of network planning initiatives to vice president for network operations planning. “Muehleisen leads the newly-formed Network Operations Planning Team, establishing a near-term planning function and continuing its strong focus on supporting and enhancing operational performance and safety,” the airline says. Southwest has been endeavoring to more tightly coordinate network planning and operations following December 2022’s holiday meltdown that led to more than 16,700 flight cancellations.

Aaron Karp

Aaron Karp is a Contributing Editor to the Aviation Week Network.

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